I’m told the VANA state conference and trade fair in Melbourne last wednesday attracted around 40 newsagents. This is less than half VANA had been telling suppliers to expect. I decided to not attend as the agenda was nothing flash and I see more appropriate suppliers at gift fairs and marketing group events.
With many trade fairs and conferences already available to newsagents through the year, there is no need for associations to play in this space. All it does is suck cash out of the channel as suppliers have to fund the trade fair space, time and freight. Newsagents ultimately pay the price for inefficient events. By all means, host a conference if you have relevant content best delivered in a conference format where newsagents are out of their businesses for a day, but not a trade fair. Some suppliers at last week’s event are very disappointed.
KMc // Mar 10, 2014 at 4:43 PM
Sounds like another ill conceived idea from the disconnected and increasingly irrelevant VANA management team. When are suppliers & publishers going to realize that ANF /VANA no longer have a membership base that is representative of the industry. Even many of the remaining members are only still there out of apathy. Hopefully someone from the ACCC will see this post and understand the reality of the situation when considering collective bargaining applications from these seriously defunct organisations.
I am curious with what is happening at VANA. They are now advertising for the members services manager role, with 2 staff leaving late last year. They are really turning over their staff. But, the curious part is it a jobs for mates. The current bookkeeper worked with board member Ron Thorpe, the accountant is the accountant for the chairman Gerard Munday. They have a new admin officer…. It is all on the website.
It is going to be an interesting audit of the financials, as the auditors for the past five years are no longer the auditors. I don’t think VANA is going to be around for much longer. They are grasping at straws to stay relevant. Time to shut up shop or merge with the ANF….